The HoF and Walter Corson

[topcat61]

I received this from the Hall of Fame this morning about Walter Corson's supposed Baseball career. It's pretty disturbing stuff:

Ryan,

I needed to do some additional consulting and research before I returned your message.

We do not have any photos taken in spring training of New York Yankees teams in 1926 or 1934. Any photos of Arizona-based teams were taken well after the time period in question. We do not have any photos of anyone named Walter Corson.

Mr. Corson claimed to have been a scout for Cleveland for about eight years. I am inclined to believe that is false. I checked multiple Cleveland Indians media guides and baseball Blue Books from the 1940s through 1960s, which contain a directory of scouts (even for some minor league teams), and his name was not listed anywhere.

Mr. Corson claimed to have attended spring training with the Yankees in 1926 and 1934. I am inclined to believe that is false. There is no record of him in any spring training roster for the Yankees for either of those years. Even if he were playing for a minor league team somehow associated with the Yankees (in the days just before farm systems), minor league clubs often held spring training somewhere other than where major league teams were.

Mr. Corson claimed to have played in the Arizona State League, where he led the league in hitting in 1925. This is false. I did my own research and then consulted with a SABR member based in the Phoenix area who I know has done a significant amount of research on the Black Sox. A look at the Arizona Republic newspaper from 28 August 1925 shows a list of the leading hitters from the Arizona State League. There is not a single Corson among them, nor does a Walter Corson come up on any search from Arizona newspapers at that time. The Arizona State League of 1924 to 1927 was an independent semi-professional league which prohibited the signing of “banned” players. One team chose to sign a banned player and was then kicked out of the league. This player then moved to the Copper League where the Black Sox and others played. There is no record of a Corson in the short-lived Copper League, which folded around 1928. At that time, the Arizona State League gained admission as a Class D professional league, but was wiped out after a few years in existence. If Corson had been signed or invited to spring training by the Yankees, I’m certain there would have been mention in one of the Arizona newspapers, and there was not.

Additionally, I did some searching on Ancestry.com, and it appears Corson spent practically his whole life in the Philadelphia area, or at least on the East Coast. There are no records for that name in the states of Arizona or New Mexico.

My conclusion is that Walter Corson might have been well known in the baseball card collecting world, but he was never a professional or semi-professional ballplayer in Arizona in the 1920s, certainly not as he claims to have been. His claims of attending Yankees spring training as a player and later scouting for the Cleveland Indians also seem made up to me. He is probably one of many people who we hear of that claim to have played professional baseball but never did.

Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to help.

Best regards,
Matt